Immediate Release: Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Minority Leaders Respond to Attorney General’s Press Conference in Platte
Sioux Falls, SD (November 4, 2015)-
During South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley’s November 3, 2015 press conference in Platte, the Attorney General refused to comment on the financial investigation into the scandal ridden $4.3 million annual GEAR UP grant previously administered by Mid Central Educational Cooperative.
Although the Attorney General, in spite of the many unanswered questions, refused to make any statement on the financial investigation into the GEAR UP program, it is apparent from what is already known that South Dakota’s Department of Education—much like the Governor’s Office of Economic Development with EB-5— has failed to properly exercise oversight and prevent the self-dealing and conflict of interest that is enabled by one party Republican rule.
South Dakota Senate and House Minority Leaders encourage the Attorney General to conduct a more thorough investigation into the GEAR UP grant and provide more answers to the public than were provided with EB-5.
The Democratic leadership also points out that South Dakota’s one party rule has contributed to the problems the State is seeing within the SD Department of Education and GEAR UP, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and EB-5, and the Secretary of State’s Office and election grants.
“The point of democracy is to have checks and balances within our government,” Senate Minority Leader Billie Sutton (D- District 21) said. Sutton continued, “With South Dakota’s one party rule, these checks and balances are not happening. The lack of oversight by state government should be our main focus in the wake of these tragedies. The most disturbing part of these scandals is that NO ONE is willing to take responsibility. South Dakota needs leaders who are willing to get to the bottom of these issues and ensure there are consequences so that these problems are prevented from occurring again in the future.”
House Minority Leader Spencer Hawley (D- District 07) added,
“South Dakota’s majority party dominance has resulted in a lack of government accountability that would come from a strong two party system. This degree of concentrated and absolute power in any party will create waste and inefficiencies, at best, and corruption and tragedy, at worst. It seems we’ve reached the latter in South Dakota.”